Kandi Wyatt, who is now a professional boxer in Calgary, has been taking part in the sport since she was just eight years old in Rocky Mountain House.
“I was in gymnastics originally and the Rocky Titans Boxing Club and the Rocky Flipz Gymnastics Club were in the same building, but there was no wall that separated the two facilities, so I’d be at gymnastics practice getting completely distracted by all the boxing,” she said in a recent chat.
She then wandered over and asked the coach if she could try it out, and after talking with her parents the rest is history.
For Wyatt, boxing has been a good outlet for energy and emotion.
“There’s so many physical and mental benefits from the sport of boxing that I’ve developed over these last 24 years. It’s given me self-confidence; it’s instilled discipline; accountability in myself and those traits that I’ve learned through the sport of boxing have transferred into my everyday life.
“Boxing has just been a really big part in molding and shaping the kind of human I am and I really like who that human is and I owe a lot of it to boxing.”
Wyatt currently resides in Calgary and trains out of the Calgary Boxing Club. She trained at the Rimbey Boxing Club for about 11 years, and commuted from Rocky Mountain House to Rimbey to train twice a week.
Wyatt has had quite a successful career, including this past March in England where she won the WBA Intercontinental Championship.
“That’s definitely my biggest accomplishment so far,” she said.
In the last three years, she’s also fought for four world titles. Although she hasn’t obtained the world title yet, she’s had the opportunity to fight for them in the United States and the UK, and hopes for another world title shot.
Looking ahead, the ultimate goal for Wyatt is to become a world champion.
In early July, Wyatt fought in Manchester, UK, for the Welterweight IBF World Title, but unfortunately didn’t win it.
She is now back to training and enhancing her skills.
“Boxing is a constant work in progress, so you always have a lot of takeaways from a boxing match on what you need to continue to work on.”
She is planning on trying to get a fight in November or December of this year.
Wyatt says she is grateful to the Rimbey Boxing Club, Town of Rimbey and Rimbey Lions Club for the 11 years she spent in Rimbey training.
“Boxing has been a huge part in molding and shaping who I am today and Rimbey was a really big part of that.”